Compressor lever trigger



Jan. 15, 1963 w. J. MACHINGO ETAL 3, 73, 1

COMPRESSOR LEVER TRIGGER Filed July 11, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG. 1.

Jan 15, 1963 w MACHINGO ETAL 3,073,314

COMPRESSOR LEVER TRIGGER 2 Sheets-$heet 2 Filed July 11, 1960 INVENTORS WILLIAM J. MACHINGO United States Patent Gfitice 3,073,314 Patented Jan. 15, 1963 3,073,314 COMPRESSOR LEVER TRIGGER William J. Machingo and Albert T. Swimmer, Youngstown, Ohio, assignors to The General Fireproofing Company, Youngstown, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Filed July 11, 1960, Ser. No. 42,122 1 Claim. (Cl. 129-29) This invention relates to filing drawers and more particularly to a drawer for cards of the type used in connection with business machines.

Filing drawers of the type above described, after being withdrawn from the cabinet are now often up-ended with the drawer head or index face constituting a supporting base for conveniently holding the drawer upright to facilitate removal and replacement of cards.

As usual, of course, drawers of this type are provided with followers which are free to move forward to keep the cards or the like compressed against the inner face of the drawer head, and, when the space in front of the follower is to be enlarged, finger pressure is applied to the follower locking means to release the compressor plate for backward movement. This freedom of the follower to move toward the drawer head is a disadvantage when the drawer is up-ended because the follower descends of its own weight. This means that the user must lift the follower during the working period, or, hold it up with one hand while manipulating the cards with the other.

Accordingly, a primary object of the present invention is to provide the compressor or follower with a hook which engages with, for example, the rear end wall of the drawer or its equivalent, so that when the drawer is up-ended it will not gravitate under its own weight and continue to act as a compressor, thereby leaving the cards or other material of the drawer free for working purposes and also freeing both hands of the operator to effect removal or replacement. When the drawer is to be returned to storage, the hook is released and the compressor functions in its normal way.

A further object of the invention is to provide a simple and practical form of hook which lends itself readily to usual manufacturing procedures employed in making the follower, and which is spring urged to locking position and manually released by compressing the spring.

With the above and other objects in view which will more readily appear as the nature of the invention is better understood, the invention consists in the novel construction, combination, and arrangement of parts, herein after more fully described, illustrated and claimed.

A preferred and practical embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a card drawer upended to illustrate the manner in which the compressor may be held to the back wall of the drawer.

FIGURE 2 is a cross sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of FIGURE 1 with the compressor hooked to the rear wall to prevent its descent.

FIGURE 3 is a detail perspective view of the compressor plate.

FIGURE 4 is a detail perspective view of the compressor control with the hook embodied therein.

FIGURE 5 is a rear elevation, partly in section, of the construction shown in FIGURE 4.

FIGURE 6 is a detail perspective view of a modified form of lever anchor which is detachable.

FIGURE 7 is a detail plan view of a further form of detachable lever anchor.

FIGURE 8 is a vertical sectional view taken on the line 8-8 of FIGURE 7.

Similar reference characters designate corresponding parts throughout the several figures of the drawing.

Referring to FIGURE 1, it will be seen that the card filing drawer, designated generally as A, includes a drawer head or front B, and a back wall C having an opening D for the purpose of carrying the drawer from the cabinet to a desk, table or work space and position it with its drawer head up-ended in order to freely remove or replace cards.

The drawer A is provided with compressor channels or guides 1-1 at each side thereof intended to receive sliding cam members 2 carried by the upper portion of the compressor or follower plate 3 as shown in FIGURE 2.

The sliding cam members 2 are provided at their bottom edges with the cam recesses 2b which receive cam wheels 4. It will, of course, be understood that there is a cam at each side of the drawer.

The cam wheels 4 are carried on stub shafts 5 formed on the opposite arms 6-6 of a yoke whose medial arched portion includes the upstanding walls 7 provided with openings 8 while its transverse horizontal portion 9 forms a base to which the lower portion 10 of a compressor manipulating lever L is secured.

As shown in FIGURES 1, 2, 4 and 5, the upper end of the lever L is provided with a hook portion H, later described more in detail.

The openings 8-8 receive the offset pivot pins 11 of the inverted U-shaped top portions 12 of the sliding cams 2. It will thus be understood that the arched support 6, 7, 8, 9, which carries the lever L is free to pivot or swing about the inwardly directed pivot pins 11 on each of the said inverted U-shaped top portions 12 of sliding cams.

The top or horizontal wall 13 of each inverted U- shaped portion 12 is provided with an opening 14 to register with the opening 15 in the housing 16 carried by the back of the compressor plate 3. When openings 14 and 15 are in registry, suitable fastening screws 15 rigidly unite the entire assembly, leaving the lever L free to lock or swing in the manner previously indicated.

The lever L is normally spring biased to a rearward position in which the wheels 4 are urged forwardly towards the front ends 2 of the inclined slots 2 to be wedged between the edges of the slots 2 and the adjacent walls of the channels 1, thereby to lock the compressor against rearward movement as, for example, when it is preceded by cards arranged between the drawer head and itself. The spring or springs for effecting such biasing are designated as 17. Usually two identical springs are used with their loops 18 mounted on shafts 11-11 and their opposite legs 19 engaging behind U- shaped portions 12-12 fixed to the compressor plate and the support portions 6-6 to which the lever is secured respectively.

It will be understood that the compressor plate 3 may move forward without the wheels 4 engaging the ends 2 of cam members 2 because forward movement of the compressor nullifies the effect of springs 12, but it cannot move backwards without operating the spring-biased lever L. Therefore, when the drawer is up-ended as shown in FIGURE 1, the compressor plate has only a positive tendency to gravitate toward the drawer head.

To prevent undesirable gravitation of the compressor plate downwardly to enable the worker to use both hands freely, the compressor plate may be moved to the back end of the drawer, which is the top end in FIG. 1, and the hook H permitted to straddle or embrace its anchor- 1ng member which is the back wall of the drawer to hold it in place.

When the hook H is released and moved toward the front of 1 follower plate 3 to move toward tne drawer head or front member B.

Thus because of its weight, the follower plate 3 and its assembly will gravitate toward the drawer head under its own weight when the drawer is up-ended on its head as shown in FIGURE 1. However, when the drawer is in use and in the position shown in FIGURE 1, it will be seen that the compressor lever L may be manipulated so that hook H will engage over the rear wall C, maintain the follower in an out-of-the-way position while the drawer is in use.

It will now be seen that the essential features of the invention reside in providing the follower plate with a hook which is manually engageable and disengageable with a member on the drawer to prevent it from moving forward toward the drawer head.

In addition to the rear wall C, FIGURES 6, 7 and 8, illustrate other forms of manually detachable members which can be fitted to the drawer at any selected point between the drawer head and rear wall.

For example, FIGURE 6 shows a form of anchor member, preferably made of wire having a relatively rigid transverse body C with the spring hooks 19, 19, offset at the same side of the body and at opposite ends for engaging with the drawer sides 1, 1 to span the drawer at any selected location and provide an anchor for the compressor regardless of the back wall C.

It will also be seen from FIGS. 7 and 8, that the anchor member in this instance is in the form of a spring wire element having the transverse anchoring body C and the opposite spring legs 19", 19 in the same plane as the body and which fit into a groove 29 at the sides of the drawer. By compressing the spring legs 19 together, this anchoring member may be readily disconnected from the drawer, and conversely when it is desired to insert the same, it is necessary to merely compress the leg sufficiently to fit into the groove 20.

We claim:

In a card filing receptacle, the combination comprising, a drawer having opposite side walls provided with guide means and opposite fixed front and back members, a hand-hold opening in said back member, a follower in said drawer having slidable means disposed within said guide means for longitudinal slidable movement between said front and back members, locking means carried by said follower and acting on said side walls to normally prevent the movement of said follower towards said back member, a manipulating lever on said follower for operating said locking means, means urging said lever and locking means to a position to lock said follower against movement towards the back member while allowing the follower to gravitate towards said front member when the drawer is disposed vertically and resting on said front member, depression of said lever against said urging means releasing said locking means to permit rearward movement of said follower, said lever including a rearwardly extending hook portion rigidly secured to the lever in a position to engage said back member when said follower is adjacent thereto, said hook portion clearing said back member when said lever is depressed and said follower isadjacent said back member, and upon subsequent release of said lever said hook portion is urged by said urging means behind said back member to retain said follower against the force of gravity.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,910,689 Gronberg et a1. May 23, 1933 2,043,323 Gourley et a1. June 9, 1936 2,277,815 Broeren et al. Mar. 31, 1942 2,924,222 Myers Feb. 9, 1960 

